Tremor in the East

I blog about earthquakes from time to time: when Haïti got hit, when Italy got hit and now, well, Japan got it too. With a tsunami on top of that. I do not have the same proximity with Japan as I have with Haïti and Italy, far from it. If it was China, even, that would be different. Still, I do have Japanese colleagues, nice, friendly people, so this tragedy did touch directly people I know, people I like. Thankfully they are okay. I have been through an earthquake myself, a major one yet nothing of the proportion they had there, so my heart goes out to them. I still remember it, the plates shaking in the cupboards, the power cuts, but above all the tremor. Something like a quiet, steady, deep growl. I blogged before about such forces of nature. But whatever the shape it takes, flood or volcanic eruption or what have you, I always imagine them as a sound, this deep, terrifying growl.